Where does our right to listen to President Bush begin and the antics of those who drown him out end?

If that happened while I was in the audience I would consider actions immediately available to me and my friends. Sitting passively in the audience while these nutjobs ride roughshod on my rights is no longer an option.

I don't know what you've already vlogged about. I came across an interesting passage in Mary Midgley's book Animals and Why They Matter, where she's talking about all the anti-discrimination legislation that was passing in the US. She's a Brit, and kind of interested in exact definitions.

She argues that to be against discrimination is to for stupidity.

She is in favor of women's rights, and to some extent in favor of animals rights, too, but she thinks certain terms like "speciesism" is stupid, because it means that we can't prefer our own children to cockroaches.

Which is stupid.

So basically she's going through the terminology of the left and laughing up her sleeve about how badly conceived most of it, and how it will lead to disaster.

Midgley is a Social Democrat (she's now 88 but still going strong). Social Democrats are Blair's party in England.

They're not Marxist boneheads, but they have to fight them all the time in England, which is filled with Marxist boneheads.

So I was thinking you could vlog about words that you don't think make any sense within current legislation, or within current moral movements.

Midgley says,

"To be undiscriminating is not a virtue."

Could that be something to play with?

Also, what do you think of the whole notion of racism? Midgley thinks it's stupid because as soon as you think about it you're a racist no matter which side of the divide you're on. Same thing with sexism. Or speciesism. She just thinks this creates opposites which in turn creates Tinbergen's stickleback effect where the sticklebacks turn red as they attack whatever they see which looks like the enemy (other male sticklebacks).

At any rate, just thought I'd toss you a few ideas.

Weird wording in laws, especially within the left, or within the academy, that you think make it impossible for people to think clearly or accurately.

"Discrimination," is perhaps one of these.

All the "isms" that you're not supposed to do is another.

What else?

There must be some odd new thing in all the cafes in Madison that is driving you crazy.

I understand that you think many of Obama's recent changes in position have been changes for the better -- and I agree -- but I'd like you to talk about what, if anything, makes you think that his current positions fairly represent what he will do if elected. Or, if you think analyzing his stated positions the wrong approach, what's the right approach? Guiding principles? Decision-making process? Personal qualities? Biography?

(1) First, a personal note, as this is an Althouse coffeehouse. This morning Mrs. Bissage and I watched five baby bluebirds leave the nesting box in the backyard.

That’s ONE . . . TWO . . . THREE . . . FOUR . . . FIVE!!!!!

That’s five eggs; five babies. Mr. and Mrs. Bluebird are batting 1.000.

Not bad.

(2) Second, here are three suggested vlog topics:

(a) The summer night, fireflies, tree frogs and crickets.

(b) All these men who cross their leg at the knee as if they were a woman.

(c) People who want to make a left at the green light but they won’t pull into the intersection while there’s oncoming traffic and then the light turns red and they just stay there waiting for the next green light inconveniencing everyone behind them.

Here are the 5 “ready-made captions” on page 43 of the “Cartoonist’s and Gag Writer’s Handbook” by Jack Markow (Writer’s Digest Books 1967):

(1) “Why don’t you look where you’re going?”

(2) “Mind if I look at it in the daylight?”

(3) “I never could understand what he sees in her.”

(4) “He got up on the wrong side of the bed today.”

(5) “This is the happiest day of my life.”

And here are the last 5 on page 52:

(1) “George Washington slept here.”

(2) “It’s the pot calling the kettle black.”

(3) “See here, my fine feathered friend!”

(4) “They’re playing our song.”

(5) “We all have to go sometime.”

So, next time anybody ever tries to act like a Mr. Big-Shot smarty-pants and like they’re all above you and stuff and they try to tell you about these ready-made captions like you're ignorant or something . . . well . . . you just look them straight in the eye and you say, “Ha! I know all about them. I read Althouse, you big, dumb jerk-o-boots!”

I'd like to know, since you like photographing flowers and plants so much, why you don't grow some. Is black-thumb syndrome just an excuse people use to avoid being nurturing or beholden to something? Is it a control thing or what? By hanging around botanic gardens with some frequency, wouldn't some botanicalness automatically rub off on a person? Wouldn't it be fun to encourage insects, birds, and other vermin into photographic proximity?

Do you know Colorado has a lot of hummingbirds, mostly at elevation, and they get pissed off when you neglect their feeders? They dive bomb you to let you know that's unacceptable. A friend told me that. He also said the little bastards are exceedingly territorial but I haven't seen that myself. If you hold still long enough you can encourage one to sit on your finger if you make like a perch directly in front of a feeder. First they have to check you out to make sure you're inanimate. It's like the Star Trek episode where the normal-speed people appear to be standing still to the people who are in hyper-speed mode.

They buzz right around your head and you stand there perfectly still in front of the feeder with your camera pre-focused at the ready. Doesn't that sound like fun?

Are you going to get a macro? Do you already have one?

Are all telephoto lenses part macro or just the low end ones?

Isn't lugging around a bunch of lenses a drag? If not the lenses, then the cameras, and that's a dreag too. The only answer to the problem is to predetermine which lens you intend to stick with all day, which isn't such a bad predetermination after all.

Would you consider buying a camera from a pawn shop? Wouldn't that be wierd? Do you know what's weirder than that? There's a pawn shop across the street and it only had musical stuff and not a single camera.

Oh, one more for Althouse: do you find it more disquieting when you do understand how a commenter's mind works, or when you don't?

---

As to the coffeehouse part (but picking up on one of the questions I asked Ann):

How many of you know, have met or talked to other commenters here? If so, how many?

I'll start: To my knowledge, I know none of them IRL. (I do know one person who has commented here maybe one or two times, a long time ago, but this person definitely doesn't count as a "Commenter," in the way I'm using it in this context.) I have spoken on the phone with four--no, five--of them. And roughly 12 know my real name and have a "real" e-mail address. About six, give or take, know what foreign policy journal I've done editing for.

OK, now I really do need to take care of some chores. But I'll check in later, curious to see if anyone picks up the gambit.

I'd like to know, since you like photographing flowers and plants so much, why you don't grow some. Is black-thumb syndrome just an excuse people use to avoid being nurturing or beholden to something? Is it a control thing or what? By hanging around botanic gardens with some frequency, wouldn't some botanicalness automatically rub off on a person? Wouldn't it be fun to encourage insects, birds, and other vermin into photographic proximity?

Do you know Colorado has a lot of hummingbirds, mostly at elevation, and they get pissed off when you neglect their feeders? They dive bomb you to let you know that's unacceptable. A friend told me that. He also said the little bastards are exceedingly territorial but I haven't seen that myself. If you hold still long enough you can encourage one to sit on your finger if you make like a perch directly in front of a feeder. First they have to check you out to make sure you're inanimate. It's like the Star Trek episode where the normal-speed people appear to be standing still to the people who are in hyper-speed mode.

They buzz right around your head and you stand there perfectly still in front of the feeder with your camera pre-focused at the ready. Doesn't that sound like fun?

Are you going to get a macro? Do you already have one?

Are all telephoto lenses part macro or just the low end ones?

Isn't lugging around a bunch of lenses a drag? If not the lenses, then the cameras, and that's a dreag too. The only answer to the problem is to predetermine which lens you intend to stick with all day, which isn't such a bad predetermination after all.

Would you consider buying a camera from a pawn shop? Wouldn't that be wierd? Do you know what's weirder than that? There's a pawn shop across the street and it only had musical stuff and not a single camera.

Professor Althouse--- as an employee of University of Madison, how do you intend to protect the Jewish students from the threats and hate speech of Anti-Semitic and Muslim extremist groups the University routinely allows on campus ?????

None of the considerable brood of Joseph and Rose Kennedy married an Irish person. Were they trying to escape the fate of the mother or the father? Some of Jefferson's children became black. Some of Sally Hemmings children became white. Nature loves a permeable wall.

(4) VLOG TOPIC: Would putting Althouse behind the wheel of this car make it even better looking? Yes or no!

Today in the mail they sent me a fancy brochure on it. How’d they get my name and address? The only thing I can figure out is they sent it to me because I’m a lawyer. Don’t they know I’m an impoverished lawyer?

You know how you can tell Porsche is a classy outfit? They didn’t include a bogus certificate saying it was redeemable for one free test drive!

Oh, good. Once I saw Bissage's latest comment via gmail-ed comment, I came over to delete my response calling her out. I see Althouse got there first.

Ann, I hope I didn't transgress, or even offend. I didn't know quite else how to call out Maxine and demonstrate why I thought she was being a ... jerk. (And it is public knowledge, what I referred to.) If that was the wrong call, I sincerely, sincerely apologize and won't ever do that again.

2) What's the longest you've gone without blogging anything at all? Does time away fluctuate between peaceful bliss and the anxiety of withdrawal, or what?

3) How does blogging make one better, and worse?

4) What are the motivations for blogging? How important is the concept of having an audience?

5) Why do folks read your blog, what motivates them to comment?

P.S. I'm looking for redress after the flawed explanation for Rush and bloggers popularity. I'm assuming that was an ill-conceived quip. Separately, I have no idea why anyone would choose to be tied down by prolific blogging without the ability to walk away from this BS for weeks or months.

In a previous post of yours, you talked about a Wisconsin law that would sanction a same-sex couple for getting married in a state that had legalized same-sex marriage. This made me think that in the event that the Supreme Ct. overturns Roe, a state could not only outlaw in-state abortions, but could criminally prosecute a woman who went to another state to get a legal (in that state) abortion. Would a law like that withstand constitutional muster? Were there laws like that on some states' books in the past when abortion was illegal there?

Fen asks: What odds would you give the following: Democrats Pivot, Take Credit For Winning The War In Iraq.

If things go well (and I realize that what exactly that term would mean in this context is subject to debate), 100%. If things go well on someone's watch, they generally take credit for it. Victory has a thousand fathers and defeat is an orphan, to quote the famous phrase. Plus, if that "going well" occurs because of some policy changes early in the Obama Administration, such a pivot would be justified.

I like that record quite a bit, though I am less familiar with his other work, though what I've heard of it I've liked. If you like ambient music, go look up a French record label called Ultimae Records, or the work of an American named Steve Roach.